Ever been on a hop-on, hop-off city tour? What about a sightseeing tour bus in Dublin? What about getting both in one?
Dublin is the largest city in Ireland, and is the capital. With so many landmarks and monuments dating hundreds of years, it is a city that is bustling with vast amounts of history to discover and plenty of things to do. It is a pretty popular weekend break for those within the UK, with flights often costing very little, but you’ll also see travellers from all over.
With so much to see within Dublin city, it can be difficult knowing how exactly to plan your trip to see all of the main sights. To make that easier, there are various tour buses that will take you on a city sightseeing tour, as well as transporting you from one end of the city to another.
What is the Dublin Sightseeing Tour Bus?
The Dublin Sightseeing Tour Bus has open topped buses, and has the hop-on hop-off option, meaning you can jump on or off the bus at any of the specified bus stops during the tour. The original tour is 1 hour 40 minutes long, and the docklands tour is 40 minutes.
How much does the Dublin hop-on hop-off bus cost?
Green Bus (24hours/48hours)
- Adults – €22/€26
- Children (6-14) – €8/€10
- Students & Senior Citizens – €20/€24
Kids (under 14) go free with a fare paying adult. You will also receive a free Pat Liddy walking tour worth €14, and you can get free entry into The Little Museum too, as well as various other discounts to be used around Dublin. Tickets can be purchased online or on the buses themselves, but keep in mind that exact change is needed if you’re buying on the bus as card payments aren’t accepted.
Whilst you are limited to a set amount of hours, this timing does work pretty well for 3-4 day breaks, taking into account your travel time on two of those days.
Book your tour tickets here. Please note: your ticket vouchers must be printed out and won’t be accepted on phones!
Where do you get on the tour bus?
There are various bus stops located around Dublin where these buses will stop and let you get on. Each bus stop is clearly marked so you can find them as you’re wandering around. There is also a map of the sightseeing tour so you can see clearly where the stops are and where the route goes.
The Original Tour Bus
The official starting point for the Original tour is from 59 Upper O’Connell Street, outside the Dublin Bus Head Office. The first leaves at 9am. Buses will hit each stop every 15 minutes, and the last one will leave at 5pm.
The Docklands Tour Bus
The Docklands tour starts at 9:30am, and this first leaves from the Parnell Square North stop (a 5 minute walk from O’Connell Street). It runs every hour, and the last one leaves at 3:30pm.
All Hop-on Hop-off buses are wheelchair accessible, however there is a restriction of one wheelchair per bus.
What sights will you see on a Dublin Sightseeing Tour Bus?
The original tour consists of 27 stops – all conveniently located nearby to Dublin’s most popular attractions. This includes museums, the National Gallery, Temple Bar, Dublin Castle, Wellington Monument, Guinness Storehouse, Whisky Distilleries and the zoo.
- The Original Tour
- The Docklands Tour
Other activities to do in Dublin:
Benefits to choosing a sightseeing tour bus in Dublin?
If you’re not sure exactly what you want to do, the tour bus is a great way to have a look around the city and learn a little more about it. The tour buses are regular, appearing at stops every 15 minutes, and once on they also tell you where you are and what’s coming up next.
These sightseeing tour buses include guides. Some buses will have just audio, and for these you can plug in your own headphones. Some buses will have a live guide (the driver) and they will give you all kinds of insight about the area you are currently in. They will point out all the most famous landmarks, and will tell you random little snippets of information too. We really enjoyed this live guide aspect, and thought having the local knowledge really made the facts and information more interesting.
These Hop-on Hop-off tour buses include 9 languages within their multi-lingual tour. These include Irish, English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese and Chinese. During these tours, English is played over the speakers, and the other languages are available through headphones. Disposable headphones are available, however to minimise waste using your own is preferable.
If you’re not big on walking, choosing a hop-on hop-off bus will mean you can easily get around the city without tiring your legs out. Dublin is pretty big and you can cover a lot of mileage just by walking to a few different landmarks, so having the bus option is ideal.
A sightseeing tour bus also gives you an easy snapshot of all the big attractions, without really having to do the legwork yourself. You might have some things in mind that you want to see, but there will almost always be something else that you’d never even heard of.
Cons to using a bus tour
The main disadvantage to choose a sightseeing tour bus is that it will be running in a specified loop each day and will only ever go that one way. This means that if you are also using the bus as a means to get around the city, your journey could end up being a longer one if you are getting on at the beginning of that loop.
Another disadvantage for this particular tour is that the last one leaves at 5:30pm, so isn’t useful for late night bus trips. But of course, that isn’t the fully intended use anyway.
We also found it difficult at times to find the correct streets with the stops, but honestly that’s probably more user error than the tour’s fault.
Find somewhere to stay in Dublin
I stayed at The Mont Hotel which is a modern hotel located close to the National Museum and Nation Gallery. The Oscar Wilde Memorial is also located just across the road. The Mont Hotel is a dog-friendly hotel, with up-to-date furnishing and with a bar/restaurant attached.
Booking.com
